"Pentagon planners expect such freedom will eventually disappear as missions involve the pilotless aircraft flying into more dangerous and contested environments."

"That's behind a push by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop autonomous systems to allow multiple drones to communicate with each other as they fly more dangerous missions. The program, known as Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE), is drawing contractors to a meeting in early April to discuss possible approaches to enable drones to work together, DARPA records show. Part of the meeting will be classified as officials spell out their needs."